ArXiv · 2026
The Kitaev model is a paradigmatic system for realizing quantum spin liquids, but its higher-spin extensions are not exactly solvable, and their spin dynamics is less well understood than in the spin-1/2 case. In this work, we reexamine a previously introduced triplet-pairing φₜ = π/2 phase pattern for the antiferromagnetic S = 1 Kitaev model and extend the analysis to weak symmetric off-diagonal exchanges Γ and Γ'. Using a bond-operator formulation of Schwinger-boson mean-field theory, we calculate the dynamical spin structure factor for the triplet 0-flux and triplet π/2-flux Ansätze with a spin-correlation scheme appropriate for Kitaev interactions. In the pure Kitaev limit, the π/2-flux Ansatz yields a flatter spectrum than the 0-flux Ansatz. The real-space spin correlations show that the π/2-flux Ansatz suppresses longer-distance correlations more strongly than the 0-flux Ansatz, yielding a correlation pattern closer to the short-ranged form expected in the Kitaev limit. This comparison shows that the flatness of S(q, ω) is tied to short-ranged spin correlations and is therefore an important consistency check, although it is not, by itself, a diagnostic of time-reversal-symmetry breaking. We then study weak off-diagonal exchanges along Γ' = Γ near the pure Kitaev limit, taking the same-sign relation from analyses of candidate spin-1 Kitaev materials. Gapped solutions are obtained within the constrained π/2-flux manifold, and the spectra share the qualitative energy- and momentum-space features found by finite-size exact diagonalization. Taken together, these results support the triplet π/2-flux chiral bosonic Ansatz as a useful mean-field description of spin dynamics near the antiferromagnetic S = 1 Kitaev limit with weak off-diagonal exchanges.
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